I wasn't really sure who to phone and ask about the problem. I tried the breast nurse number first and it was an answer phone message saying it could take up to 24 hours to ring me back! That wasn't an option as I was leaking out again. I rang ward F16, where I had my original surgery and they said to go and see them and they would make sure a doctor was around to see me.
We arrived and were directed to the day room and asked to wait there. A young doctor arrived about 10 minutes later and asked a few questions before going off to read my notes. Another nurse came and checked my blood pressure and temperature...both ok. The doctor came back just as Em rang, so Mikey talked to Em while I went to have a check up from the doctor. It was going ok until she tried to take the dressing off and this bloody stuff started pouring everywhere. She grabbed handfuls of paper towels and waterproof stuff and told me told press down and hold it on my breast while she made a quick call to her superiors. She came back after about 10 minutes to tell me she had spoken to a trainee surgeon who was coming to take a look. The other bad news was that she needed some blood. ( I feel like I am now living on the set of a vampire movie. Everytime I leave the house..somebody wants my blood!!!
Anyway, this trainee surgeon arrives and we go through the same thing again. Remove dressing..bloody stuff all over..mop it up..pass me on to someone else. This time, I was being passed to the Nightingale Centre and the trainee surgeon says " I am just going to make a phone call". As usual, when I am in a hospital, I am starving! ( I really do need to eat before I go in future) Worryingly, the Doc has told me I cannot eat or drink as they may need to take me into theatre! In the time I am left waiting to know what is going on, Mike has been and had breakfast, a read of his paper and a fag! After what seemed like an eternity, the doc returned and said they definitely need blood, despite my assurances that my white blood count was very good yesterday and I don't have any veins left that aren't bruised and full of holes from the weekend. No, they need the blood!. A very nice young man came and tried several options, including using children's tiny needles. I think he was getting a bit stressed so I suggested that the nurses at the Nightingale have a go. The nurse who had come in to put temporary dressings on me offered to have a go. Success!! She managed it first time. Must be a girl thing!
With enough padding to stop me leaking everywhere, we head off to the Nightingale centre. We were there only for a few minutes when the tiredness thing kicked in. Its awful. One minute you are ok and the next minute its like your body says. ´That's enough. Sleep time´ I was just working out how many chairs I would need to put together to lie down on when they called my name.
We went through to a consultation room and were shortly followed by Miss Cox and Lisa, a breast care nurse. I warned them about the leaking before I undressed, so they were well prepared with aprons and waterproof everything. After about 2 seconds, I was informed that it was an abscess, or had been an abscess with a very nasty infection. Once my wounds had healed up, the infection had made a new channel to escape from, hence the new holes. Fortunately, my right breast is still quite numb, so I didn't feel the blade making the hole bigger ( to make it easier to clean out), or the medical probe having a root around inside. After about 15 minutes of probing and cleaning I am informed that all should now be well. If there is any fluid leakage, apparently it will just be the saline solution used for cleaning. Great! At least I know what it was now, and better still, the dent that has been there for weeks now, was caused by the abscess and not by a botched up surgical procedure. Miss Cox says that the dent should fill out again now...hopefully. She says a close eye will need to be kept on my new wound and that I should come back tomorrow for clean dressings.
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